|
|
|
New Brunswick Students to Thank Assemblyman Doria, RFB&D
for Learning Through Listening™ Success
New Jersey Assembly Education Committee co-chair Joseph V. Doria said,
"You can tell the children are interested, the children are excited, the children want to learn. That's what Learning Through Listening is all about."
Students from two New Brunswick elementary schools presented a book they wrote to New Jersey Assemblyman Joseph V. Doria (D-Hudson), David Sciarra, Executive Director of the Newark Law Center and local volunteers thanking them for their support in placing Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic's® (RFB&D®) Learning Through Listening™ (LTL) program in their classrooms.
Hector Villafane, principal of Roosevelt School shows Our Journey With Learning Through Listening to the audience at RFB&D national headquarters.
The event took place at RFB&D's national headquarters in Princeton on April 30, 2002.
The students, from New Brunswick's Roosevelt and Lord Stirling Elementary Schools, made the presentation to Doria, the Assembly Education Committee chair, and RFB&D staff and volunteers for bringing the LTL program into their classes and many other classrooms that accommodate students with reading disablilties in New Jersey's Abbott school districts. Christine Ranaghan, educational outreach director for RFB&D's New Jersey unit says, "The students in these classes have made great strides because of this program, and we want to thank the people, both in Trenton and at the grass roots level, who have helped make it possible."
Kamara Sirmans of Roosevelt Elementary School makes her presentation with Lord Stirling principal Rosaura Valarezo-Lorente looking on.
Governor James E. McGreevey, who served as the honorary chair of the local unit's Record-A-Thon 2002 campaign, recently signed an Executive Order creating the Abbott Implementation and Compliance Coordinating Council. This cooperative board ensures compliance with the New Jersey Supreme Court's Abbott decision that guarantees children in the state's urban school districts the education they deserve to prepare for a successful future. RFB&D's LTL program has been successfully utilized by students with reading disabilities in New Brunswick classrooms since 1999. The Roosevelt School is among the first schools in the nation to use RFB&D's new digital books which will soon replace taped texts across the nation. The new technology vastly improves the students ability to navigate texts.
Roosevelt Elementary students Bryan Ortiz, Mohamed Conteh, Amir Sierra, Ana Mendez and Luis Sanchez with New Jersey Unit Outreach Director Christine Ranaghan, Assemblyman Joseph Doria, RFB&D Marketing Vice President Peter Smith, New Brunswick Schools Superintendent Ronald Larkin and RFB&D President and CEO Richard O. Scribner
Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, a nonprofit volunteer organization, is the nation's educational library serving people who cannot effectively read standard print because of visual impairment, dyslexia or other physical disability. Nationally, over 100,000 students use the organization's talking textbooks, with over 5,000 members from New Jersey alone. The New Jersey unit, also based in Princeton, benefits from the talents of nearly 500 volunteers who record texts and perform outreach and administrative duties.
photos in this article by Ross Stout, Taylor Photo
Read the book published by the Roosevelt Elementary students
|